As football season is upon us, we will be doing season previews for each division, similar to our draft preview. Today, we start with the NFC South, and NFC Champion, Carolina Panthers.
Last year, Cam Newton finally lived up to his lofty draft position. As a combination between a QB and Fullback, Newton was an almost unstable mixture of air and land. He’s now the second Panthers QB to lead the Carolina franchise to the SuperBowl. The first was Jake Delhomme, who I’m sure we all remember as being the second coming of Quarterback Jesus. Sarcasm aside, Jake Delhomme was a JAG, just another guy, who’s Super Bowl appearance was overshadowed by Justin Timberlake and an errant nipple. Newton on the other hand, leads a strong offensive unit that has the potential to be even better, with the addition of Kelvin Benjamin to the receiving corps. In addition to Benjamin, watch for Greg Olsen to continue to produce a solid season. He is one of the most consistent tight ends in the game of football, and his ability to stay on the field, might make him the most valuable tight end in football, if not in the top three. Watch for the Newton-to-Olsen connection to continue to tear up the NFC South. Speaking of Newton, don’t be surprised when he to continue to blossom into a dual threat quarterback unlike anyone else to ever step on the field. The dude is 6’5, and runs a 4.5 40; if he continues to work on his pocket presence, he will be a completely different type of animal.
Defensively, the Panthers lost their star CB, Josh Norman, to the Redskins, after they rescinded his franchise tag offer. In addition to losing Norman, the team also their lost starting safety, Roman Harper, to Division rival New Orleans Saints, who we will get to later. While their secondary may be suspect at the moment, expect that veteran FS, Kurt Coleman will help provide stability to a different looking DB’s group. Within the front 7, Luke Kuechly is one of the best linebackers in football. In my humble opinion, Kuechly is a game-changing linebacker, cut from the same cloth as Brian Urlacher or Ray Lewis. While they may not play the exact same, Kuechly is a bad man, and when paired with defensive ends, Kony Ealy and Charles Johnson, Quarterbacks should be scared. Add in second year linebacker, Shaq Thompson, and disruptive Nose Tackle, Star Lotulelei and you have an explosive front seven, that should scare any offensive unit in football.
While the Panthers look like a team built to go deep into the playoffs, there are some other teams in their division that should give them some struggles throughout the season. The Atlanta Falcons are hoping that second year head coach, Dan Quinn, can rally this team, like he did for the first half of the season last year. Matt Ryan is a solid quarterback in the league, though I wouldn’t consider him elite, maybe slightly below that level. DeVonta Freeman is hoping to continue being a fantasy monster on the ground, while Julio Jones, might be the most dangerous player in football. For the Falcons’, their Offense has all the potential to be good, but their success on the field depends on their defense. They have talented players, like Desmond Trufant, Vic Beasley, and Keanu Neal, but the question is whether these young players can begin to step into the role of stars, and play dominantly. Personally, I don’t think so. Given some time, maybe, but these three are expected to step in and perform instantly. Atlanta fans, I may be wrong, and when I am, feel free to ridicule me endlessly, but I just don’t see it happening.
The Saints are very similar to the Falcons. They don’t have a fairly new coach, but they do have an established Elite QB, who has won a SuperBowl in the past. Yes, old man Drew Brees, who’s career has been reborn since coming to the Big Easy, hopes to continue to roll back the miles on his storied career. But just like Cameron did with his dad’s Corvette, I think this will prove to be hopeless. It’s not like Brees isn’t a quality starting quarterback, on the contrary, I’d still put him in my top 10, but age always catches up to you. It happened to Favre, it happened to Manning last year, and it will eventually happen to Brees, (and Brady for that matter). The problem here is the lack of talent around Brees. The addition of Max Unger from Seattle helped last year, but in order to do so, the Saints gave up their best young player in Jimmy Graham. Graham hasn’t been the same in Seattle, and neither has Brees. Brandin Cooks is a solid wide out, but he will not fill the spot left by Marques Colston, just as Cody Fleener will not fill the spot left by Graham. The Saints have all the potential in the world, but not much of the talent. Mark Ingram is not the same back he was at Alabama, and the New Orleans faithful have seen that throughout his tenure there. Defensively, first round draft pick Sheldon Rankins, will be expected to start at Nose Tackle from day one, pairing up with fellow defensive lineman Jordan Cameron, creating a pretty decent pass rush. At linebacker, the Saints picked up Rams castaway, James Laurinaitis, who will command the defense. Their secondary is not their strongest unit, but players like Kenny Vaccaro and Jairus Byrd hope to be effective against the opposing wide outs. I don’t see it happening, but they will try.
The last team in the NFC South I will be touching on, is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs fired their coach last season, Lovie Smith, and brought in his offensive coordinator to fill the position. Dirk Koetter, hopes to be able to mold second year star, Jameis Winston into a badass quarterback. Captain Crab-legs will be getting help from his running-back, Doug Martin, and wide out, Mike Evans, both who are stars in their own right. Opposite Evans, will be Vincent Jackson, who continues to be a picture of consistency at the wide receiver position. If Winston continues to progress like he did last year, the former number 1 overall pick should be able to help his team add some tally’s to the win column. In fact, I think that the Bucs will be the surprise of the NFC South, and will shock people on their way to second place in the division, (no one is beating Cam and the Panthers for the division title). On defensively, the Bucs spend both their first and second round picks on defense, adding a starting corner in Vernon Hargreaves III and a rotational nose tackle, who could own the position by the season’s start, in Noah Spence. Both players will be expected to join LaVonte David and Gerald McCoy as Tampa’s most dominant defensive players. Should these four players be able to coexist and abuse opposing offenses, watch out for the Bucs.
Asinine Predictions that I Will Most Likely Screw up:
NFC South Champions: Carolina Panthers
- Carolina Panthers: 12-4
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 9-7
- New Orleans Saints: 7-9
- Atlanta Falcons: 5-11
Stay woke for our AFC South Prediction coming later in the week.
